Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Obama and our Congressional Democrats have leapt beyond smoke and mirrors, they have run past the zone of Orwell, and they have now moved into the previously uncharted territory of governing by . . . Clown Magic. It is when they spend us into oblivion and, at the same time, claim the mantle of fiscal responsibility.

A few days ago, the left passed Pay As You Go Legislation, requiring Congress to stop borrowing and pay for new programs by spending cuts or tax increases. As Obama signed it into law, the Congressional Democrats turned out in force to parade before the cameras in their newly bought fiscal hawk costumes. Obama got in front of a camera and waxed eloquent about this watershed development in Democratic fiscal restraint.

Well, you might ask, can't Congress pay for new programs without having to write it into legislation? I mean, there isn't Tony Soprano or some union thug thug hanging around Congress with a gun forcing Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid to pen spending that vastly exceeds our national bank account, is there?

No, of course not. And sure, this Congress could limit their spending without any need for legislation. But this is Clown Magic - what you see in the left hand is anything but the reality that is palmed out of camera shot in the right. The legislation passed by the left and signed by Obama didn't just have Pay As You Go in there, it also had a provision raising the debt ceiling for our national government by a whopping $1.9 trillion, bringing our debt ceiling to a grand total of $14.3 trillion. Not surprisingly, after telling us all about this new-found Democratic commitment to fiscal restraint, Obama forgot to mention the near $2 trillion in borrowing he and his Democrats just authorized. And he took no questions. It was Clown Magic indeed.

But the Clown Magic doesn't stop there by any means. Here we are but a few days after Congress passed Pay-Go and Obama wants a new "Jobs Bill." So what's the first thing Nancy Pelosi does in the House? Why she passes a $155 billion dollar jobs bill through the House - and then exempts a third of it from Pay As You Go. Hah. You would think that she and Harry Reid would at least wait a week or so before publicly violating the provisions of Pay As You Go - you know, just to keep up the pretenses. But they didn't even let the ink dry on the bill before throwing it under the bus - where it will no-doubt remain until October 2010, when it will be picked up, hosed off and made presentable for the cameras yet again..

The problem with Clown Magic is that, even when practiced by skilled, professional Democratic clowns, like all magic, once you see the device, it really doesn't work. That is the case with the old stimulus bill of a year ago that was supposed to create jobs hand over fist. And, no surprise, using Clown Magic accounting, it has - to the tune of two million jobs according to the White House. Unfortunately for the Democrats, it seems the people have seen the device on that one. Only 6% of those surveyed in a CBS-NYT poll taken within the last two weeks thought that the stimulus had created job one.

Let that sink in. Six Percent.

Heck, just put together the employees of the DNC, Acorn and the SEIU and that's closing in on 7% of the electorate. Apparently even some of them aren't buying it. That is a real problem for Democrats.

And as unfortunately for them, Head Clown Pelosi in the House only knows a few tricks. She has crafted a $155 billion dollar "jobs bill." Despite its name, the bill devotes less than 1/4 of 1% of its spending to small business loans. The rest is pork - - - and includes the doctor fix for medicare that the left took out of Health Care Plan so that they could claim fiscal responsibility on that one.

You might wonder about how a "jobs bill" could pass with so little devoted to small business, since small businesses are responsible for over 80% of new job creation in America. But that is the beauty of Clown Magic - the only things that matter are the name and the spin, not the reality. McQ at Q & O both explains that the bill is just a small version of Stimulus I and he itemizes the bill.

It will only be a few more months before we know if the public has seen the device on the Jobs bill - and all of the above really. This is unique, as never before in our history has an administration tried to govern by Clown Magic. We'll see how it works out for them - though I don't personally see this ending well.